Continuing from Part 1 last week, we’ve compiled the questions from our Estate123.com readers concerning parking bay problems faced by high-rise property owners, and consulted our good friend and certified real estate expert Kit, Au-Yong from Laurelcap Sdn Bhd to help answer some of these questions.
Our ‘Your Questions, Answered‘ series aims to answer property-related questions by our readers, which will hopefully help them on their journey towards successful homeownership and property investment. Got questions? Feel free to leave a comment below, or visit our Estate123.com Facebook page!
Q: Is there any example of a strata title issued for individual car park bays as individual parcels?
A: There are some organizations which purchase parking bays for investment purpose. We normally see – in residential high-rise developments – parking bays defined as accessory parcels to units of (a particular) condo/apartment unit. Whereas in commercial property, a whole floor of basement car park can exist as one single strata parcel.
There are some transactions of parking lots in public announcements i.e. PHB purchased car parking bays at Icon City in PJ, and SCP group purchased car park in Phileo Damansara office. However, I do not have details of the titles, whether those are stratified as car park solely, or as accessory parcels to a office or retail lot within the development.
Q: Is the developer or JMB responsible for the security of the car park in a condo in the event of break-in or vehicle being stolen? Can the owner sue or claim compensation if the security of the car park is found to be lacking even though the vehicle is insured?
A: The JMB is certainly responsible for all property management of a common area, and car park access is part of it. However, specifically to answer your question of whether they can be held responsible for break-in or theft, it may not be a straightforward answer. Just like a condo unit being broken into, the JMB may not be held responsible unless there is proof of their negligence in conduct.
Q: My developer claims although they are required to provide 10% parking lot allocation for visitors, they don’t need to surrender these visitor parking lots to JMB because it is a mixed development with commercial title (for example, Berjaya Times Square does not have visitor car park). How can they compare SoHo service apartments with a design built shopping complex mix develepment? Should the JMB be the rightful owner for visitor car park allocation?
A: Normally the common visitor car park belongs to JMB/MC. This should be reflected in the strata plan.
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